There is a significant link between SEO and web hosting, and a company ignores it at its own peril. Business owners are becoming wise to search engine optimization and the impact it can have on a business’s ability to generate customers. However, it can be a tricky thing to nail down, and exactly what steers it is knowledge that only Google has. The search engine giant, though, has confirmed that it does look at some factors that a hosting service can affect. It’s therefore extremely important that a business find a service they can trust, and not just for marketing reasons either. In fact, the company’s entire online presence could be threatened by poor service or a lagging site.
How are SEO and web hosting services linked?
Think about what frustrates users the most when they are on the internet, and it’s a good bet that Google will do everything to avoid it as well. Google, after all, is in the business of delivering results that people trust and want to visit. But how does Google perceive which sites are reliable and user friendly?
It’s a question without an easy answer, as Google weighs dozens of factors when generating a search ranking. What is known, though, is that speed and uptime are parts of this equation, because users hate dealing with slow sites and sites that regularly go down. And if users hate them, so does Google. Speed and uptime happen to be two things that also concern a company’s hosting service, and both will vary quite a bit from service to service.
In general, a free or cut-rate service will not promise anything but the most basic features. Forget about top speeds, ironclad reliability, knowledgeable tech support, tight security, and other important features. Instead, these services typically stop at offering anything other than a spot on a server, and a spot that isn’t promised for any length of time. In other words, there are plenty of cheap and free services out there that will drop a client as soon as they feel it is in their best interests to do so. For example, if one of their client’s is accused of plagiarizing material or infringing on IPs, the service may not feel like dealing with it and drop the client altogether.
Speed and uptime are things that a company should expect from their service, and established, professional firms will make both a priority. That means uptime in excess of 99.9 percent and a site that is extremely responsive. Professionals will also provide superior tech support and maintain the site on a secured, private server if desired. Any company that wants to maximize their online presence will choose a business that specializes in both SEO and web hosting.